UC researchers get forest land from PG&E

University of California research on the effects of climate change on trees and wildlife is getting a big boost by the donation of more than 4,500 acres of Northern California woodlands that will double the size of the university’s research forests.

The donation to UC was approved Wednesday by the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, a private foundation created in 2004 as part of a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bankruptcy settlement to permanently protect more than 140,000 acres of California’s pristine watershed lands from development.

The donated land includes 3,100 acres near the Pit River in Shasta County and 1,484 acres in the Lake Spaulding area of Nevada County that are owned by PG&E, and is the largest single acquisition of forestland in the university’s history. The land will be transferred to the UC Center for Forestry in about a year, after final approval by the California Public Utilities Commission.